There is nothing more aggravating to me than someone informing me that they bought a TASER that has five million volts of energy for twenty dollars. My abrupt response is always “It is not a TASER, it is just a stun gun”. This enlightenment generally is met with a “deer in headlights” expression followed by silence and then a defiant retort of “NO, I bought a TASER…I think”. After years of this back and forth stun gun categorization challenge, I felt it was time to educate the public on the differences between a TASER and a stun gun. After all, I would only recommend one for self defense purposes and would caution the use of the other due to its lack of take-down power from a safe distance.
So, what is a TASER and how does it differ from a stun gun? Let’s take a trip back in time to grade school when we first learned about squares and rectangles. The rule of thumb that we were taught was that a square is always a rectangle because it is a quadrilateral with four ninety degree angles but a rectangle is not always a square because it does not always contain four congruent (or equal) sides. Aside from the geometry lesson, the same holds true of stun guns and TASERs as long as the TASER is the square in the analogy. Simply put, a TASER is always a stun gun but a stun gun is certainly not always a TASER. Pay attention and you’ll notice that the media often gets this wrong as well when reporting on a stun gun incident by calling it a TASER.
The definition of a stun gun as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary is a weapon designed to stun or immobilize (as by electric shock) rather than kill or injure the one affected. The definition of a TASER as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary is [a weapon] used for a gun that fires electrified darts to stun and immobilize a person. Without any further distinction, the definitions provide insight for differentiation in that the stun gun definition is more focused on stunning whereas the TASER definition focuses more on firing electrified darts. This is an important distinction that will be embraced later in this article. There is no question that a TASER acts as a stun gun from the definition but what the definition does not shed light on is that the TASER does so much more than a stun gun through involuntary (a key term of distinction) neuromuscular incapacitation.
In order to understand neuromuscular incapacitation, let’s first understand pain compliant devices. Any device that is reliant on pain to stop a threat is considered a pain compliant device. This can include pepper sprays, knives, batons and even firearms (given that a person doesn’t die from bleeding out). In fact, there have been many accounts reported by law enforcement of doped up individuals that keep attacking or pursuing their target after being stabbed or shot because they lack the ability to feel pain as a result of their drugged state. A stun gun is a pain compliant device because it relies on pain to control the behavior of another, which is a voluntary response (not forced in many situations). On the contrary, a TASER is NOT a pain compliant device because it works through neuromuscular incapacitation, which is involuntary to say the least. Once the probes or darts are attached to the person or the clothing on the person, they complete an electrical circuit that incapacitates the threat through neuromuscular incapacitation or NMI.
Neuromuscular incapacitation works by scrambling the messages from the brain to the body through the central nervous system. Johnathon Strickland of “How Stuff Works” explains the involuntary nature of neuromuscular incapacitation beautifully:
When you apply a high-voltage, low-amperage electric charge to muscle tissue, it's as if you're overloading its communication system. TASER’s electric pulses cause affected muscles to contract up to 19 times per second. Under normal conditions, your body moves by relaxing one set of muscles while contracting another. But if an electronic pulse hits your body, both sets of muscles may try to contract at the same time. Generally speaking, the stronger muscles win out. But because the pulses override the commands from your brain, you have no conscious ability to control their movements.
In addition to neuromuscular incapacitation, another monumental difference between a TASER and a stun gun is the ability to protect oneself from a safe distance. A stun gun operates on contact; otherwise known as a “drive stun” because you have to drive the stun gun into the person’s body to get the maximum effect of the stun gun’s voltage. Unlike a traditional stun gun, the TASER has two probes or darts that are propelled by nitrogen that shoot out up to fifteen feet to give the prospective victim the ability to take down the threat from a safe distance. Unlike the stun gun that stops when the target runs allowing the threat to run after the target, the TASER C2 incapacitates continuously for thirty seconds providing the critical time necessary for the target to run to a safe location without the threat following closely behind. The goal of any unwanted or threatening encounter is to get to safety, not to stay and fight, which is provided by the TASER.
The TASER and stun gun alike are electrical devices and can malfunction just as a cell phone or computer does; therefore, it is always a good idea to have basic self defense knowledge in the event of a malfunction. With that said, I believe in layers of protection that starts with mental self defense and escalates from there to a TASER (my weapon of choice). The most important thing to ponder before purchasing a stun gun over a TASER is whether or not you want to put the power in your hands with a non pain compliant device like a TASER or in the hands of the threat with a pain compliant device like a stun gun. To reiterate, I would only recommend a TASER for self defense purposes and would caution the use of the stun gun due to its lack of take-down power from a safe distance.
Stay safe!
Comments